Comparative Development Administration

By: Analiza V Muñoz

The Future of Development Administration

Generally, our minds tell us that we must worry about our future. Do we really have to

do that? Clear predictions and warnings save lives. With just a few minutes of notice of an

outbreak coronavirus disease (COVID-19) or the eruption of the Taal volcano, Filipinos may

react to defend themselves against injury and death. Predictions and warnings can also

reduce damage and economic losses. Now, do we need to consider the predictions or future

views of several futuristic authors? Let us review and analyze their contributions through

their books about the future:

In the book "21 Lessons for the 21st Century," it provides a clear guide for

overcoming such uncertainties and addresses the most important global, cultural and

economic problems of today caused by technological innovation while helping us as well as

the government to plan for an uncertain future. The technique of bringing an end to our

worries, Harrari explains, is not to stop worrying. It's to know what things to worry about, and

how much to worry about. As he mentions in his introduction, "What are today's greatest

challenges and most important changes? What are we supposed to pay attention to? What

are we supposed to teach our children? According to him, the real dilemma facing the world

should be unveiled. Nationalism does not fix world problems such as Global Warming,

Global Automation Poverty, or Nuclear Conflicts, Genetic Engineering, and other high-risk

technological challenges. Only a global legitimacy will intervene, through which nations can

intensify risks and challenges and move forward.

Harrari in his book addresses the Tragedy of the Commons has just gone global, and

if we don't respond sensibly, the danger is imminent. Delving into what is true and what is

fiction Harari clearly opens our eyes to how these fallacies rule our lives. His book offers the

most sensible explanation of the present state of mankind; it seeks to justify our way of

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getting there; it provides the basis for a serious and difficult discussion; the most important

biases facing mankind without even realizing it are dispelled. And it ends with a path of

introspection to understand the world within.

Data is now the most valuable asset, says Harari. Therefore, all our processes are

being disrupted by technology. Various ideologies have always shaped the way human

beings see and direct the world. Whatever one seizes the most, our culture has been

decided for decades. What is most important is the thing for which our leaders and nations

are going to compete, and thus determine what direction the world is moving towards. So

far, technology seems to destroy all the stakeholders in the 21st century. Now, I asked you,

what should the Philippines and other nation value most?

In 1949 novel entitled “1984” introduces a potential sovereign power experimenting

with alternative facts with the goal of manipulating mind and reality. The book explains a

society governed by a dictatorial "Big Brother" political group, which proclaims total

truthfulness while spreading carefully orchestrated lies, opposing morality while demanding

it, and exercising dictatorial power, while pretending to be the guardian of democracy.

The lies of Big Brother and the distorted proclamations are handed down as facts in

the present; then they are handed down to historians as truths. As clearly stated in the book

"Those who control the past, control the future; those who control the present, control the

past." Dictatorship is based on deception portrayed as realities, on the streets and borders

by police and their supporters, in the name of the country's love, claiming to be concerned

with the welfare of the poor or marginalized, and fostering peace that comes from a large

and ever-changing collection of enemies such as drug users and drug lords, but in fact, the

poor remains to be the target and the victim. Orwell addressed in this book that dictatorial

methods are fear and intimidation. Though, according to him, each elected representative's

mechanisms should be shielded by truth conceived from a sense of morality and justice.

That is now happening in the Philippines. Language has been slowly and subtly

changed to distort and alter reality through the venom of political correctness, making

unpleasant horrible things more appropriate, softening and clouding the sharp edges of

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reality and shifting our expectations. The urge to speak the language of security is becoming

omnipresent, for example, a box pops up when you do a google search asking you to submit

any feedback for derogatory search keywords. This is truly incredible. Do we really need to

answer it? Do we really intend to offend or hurt others? Why are people promoting idiocy

unwittingly? Why don't we speak up and say this is nuts, rather than go along? Because to

stand up out against the idiocy of political correctness, we may be labeled as hateful, a

mischievous, a goatee, narrow-minded, unintelligent, and other labels. Our work may be

under pressure. Independence may be undermined by what was once a democratic society.

Let us look at the issue of ABS CBN network, several critics have said that the

reason why their franchise will not be renewed is that their news is a source of

contradictions, inaccuracies, pure propaganda, and outright lies. Would you think this is

true? While most of us realize that this is not the real reason, but the eyes of others, they are

most likely to believe it. What if the allegation is true? It's amazing how slight changes in the

written word or intonation of the speech of the newscasters will control and change our

understanding and our thought.

How about the issues or news posted on social media, such as Facebook? Much of

the content they publish seems to be a betrayer to our nation or intended to incite

indignation, civil unrest, and violence. What is most disturbing is how people unconsciously

embrace what they have read, without clarification and question. The Orwell's 1984 was a

fictional view of a very disturbing world, and a warning not to let our nation regress to that

state. It's about re-creating reality, distorting, dragging, and misrepresenting objective truth

to better suit one's individual preferences. In his book, the government is constantly

reviewing and deleting history that has become problematic. It is likewise happening now,

governments quietly rewrite press releases to remove past statements that proved to be

wrong or to add statements to support their current assertions or the government will release

a new issue to shift the attention or focus of the Filipinos on the issue of government

involvement. In short, Orwell warned us that dishonest language is a drug that can put

conscience to sleep. He warned us that when words are used to lie rather than, to tell the

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truth, the house of language is darkened, and the spirit of man is dull. Orwell's prediction that

the government has funded the massive infrastructure of equipment and resources required

to keep its people under continuous surveillance. Today, the public itself is financing the

more high tech surveillance that monitors, monetizes and manipulates them and the people

around them. Citizens purchase, upgrade and maintain the latest digital devices at regular

intervals, pay for the electricity and internet services needed to connect them, and grant

unlimited rights to their most intimate information to private companies. The ultimate goal of

the massive surveillance empire, according to Orwell, is to maintain and reinforce the power

of the state. But the goal of the online world's secret surveillance today is to sustain and

legitimize the power of social media corporations. Orwell foresaw that the ever-present

"telescreens" would act as both an information conveyor and a monitoring instrument,

saturating both public and private areas with government-controlled cameras and

microphones. But it seems that smartphones are now performing this role, serving as both

our gateway to the digital world and the medium by which various private companies, from

data brokers to social media companies themselves, control any move we take.

The world is moving faster than ever before, isn't it? Didn't Alvin Toffler, who coined

the term “future shock”, nail it when he said the speed of change would continue to

increase? The pace of change is increasing, but the impact of change on human existence

and society has been steady for at least the period of the Industrial Revolution, and perhaps

longer. Future Shock explicitly describes a changing civilization: tomorrow's family life, the

emerging of new industries, subcultures, lifestyles, and human behavior — all of them

temporary. This is transforming the world of tomorrow by overflowing with limitless cliches.

Toffler used the phrase "information overload" to refer to people's disoriented responses as

they feel overwhelmed by relentless technical activity. Consequently, those people,

institutions, and civilizations who failed to keep up with the demands of new information

would quickly collapse. He anticipated the dissemination of free-flowing knowledge through

personal computers and the Internet, introducing the word "information overload" to the

standard vernacular, referring to the difficulties people have in identifying problems and

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reaching decisions on account of the sheer amount of data accessible. He also assumed

that we would live in a society where there was no need to own something. I do not agree

with this view. He noted that fewer and fewer jobs today require employees to be physically

present in their workplaces, a trend that is now practiced by the private sector in the

Philippines and mostly in China, as many businesses have used the "work for home" policy.

The latter used this strategy to ensure their employees and the operations of their

organization will not suffer as a result of the coronavirus outbreaks. Toffler anticipated this

and the growth of home offices, writing that one-day homes would look like "electronic

cottages" that would allow people to have a better work-life balance and a happier family life.

If this practice will be used and continues to be followed by both the public and private

sectors, there is no question that Ambisyon Natin 2040 will be accomplished.

Today, views on telecommunications policies are decidedly diverse, but their

prevalence is not denied. Toffler popularized the phrase "adhocracy," a reference to a

company that runs without a formal hierarchy. The adhocracy as he described, is fluid and

often horizontally organized. This encourages flexibility and adaptability because workers

are not interested in certain tasks. Several companies today are adhocracies — offering

tasks that shift based on requirements and titles that would not match anywhere on the

traditional corporate ladder. Here, the role of knowledge and information is to become the

bargaining power It seems to recognize that the advancement of information and

communications technology would mean a freer future for the 'digital culture'. The future is

not something completely different from the present, just waiting to move us around the next

corner. The cultural changes that challenge us are of our own making, and the future we

experience or enjoy must develop, struggling with transition, out of the present.

In the last paragraph of Future Shock, Toffler states, "These pages will have served

their purpose if in some measure they helped create the consciousness needed for man to

undertake the control of change, the guidance of his evolution." Is a "consciousness"

necessary to control change, to direct evolution? Obviously, the transition is already under

influence, quite implicitly. Together we are part of the ‘Change’, inexplicably evolving as a

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species. How are we going to do it? What for? Toffler is optimistic about several reforms that

are taking place, and maybe a lot of the traumas too. The New Age is so much bigger than

intellectually, all we can do is acknowledge the fact. The evidence goes far beyond all the

technical and lifestyle changes directly linked to Toffler’s views and ideas. From the advent

of history to the present, the most drastic changes in human life have been very recent due

to technology and the changing mindset of the Millennial. There are also special changes:

we can travel anywhere in the world in a day; we can speak to people around the world

without leaving our homes; there are those who can destroy the world if the mood strikes

them; there are zealots who can paralyze commerce and destroy livelihoods with guns,

bombs, kidnappings, embargoes, terrorism, death gas, etc. Some of these changes have

taken place in our world, particularly in our nation, the Philippines.

As for James Canton's book "The Extreme Future," a clear view of the next

convergence trends of technology, labor, defense, culture, life sciences, education,

entertainment, climate, and behaviors would shape the future together. He set out some of

the great ideas and concepts of 'The Extreme Future' that cover the concepts of velocity,

complexity, innovation, and disruption that will boost both threat and opportunity for those

who are flexible and bold enough to drive the rough speed of rapid change. Canton said that

radical changes in work, society and interactions will require companies to adjust quickly to

drastic changes, all linked to speed, complexity, risk, and surprise. For me, the most

important lesson I learned from this book was to have a lot of resource available such as

materials for reading/thinking, and also to consider and prioritize actions that I need to

plan/execute immediately, in order to succeed as a professional individual in the 21st

century.

In his book, Megatrends, Naisbitt identifies the global trends that will shape the future

political and economic world. The term ' megatrends ' was coined by John Naisbitt in the

early 1980s and used to describe a series of changes that were apparently taking place in

the USA and elsewhere. According to him, understanding the present is the most reliable

way to anticipate the future. The basis of his analysis is a forced-choice theory, in which

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societies add new issues and forget old ones. Megatrends produce a great deal of

information and an extensive bibliography on the underlining elements that have transformed

our nation and that will shape our future. This period of uncertainty and instability is a period

of great tranquility and opportunity. Naisbitt was clearly correct in terms of the growth of

high-tech industries, globalization, the explosion in information enhancing democracy, the

boom in social networking and the massive increase in consumer choice. It's valuable

learning for everyone involved in marketing, as they begin to open their eyes to the potential

and possibilities of current trends. Since advancement is becoming essential to both the

organization as a whole and the marketing practice, it is crucial to adopt a visionary mindset.

Naisbitt predicted that California will become one of the leading indicator regions of major

trends in the future of the United States. He was right, California has begun to emerge as a

state that has transformed higher education into its ear. The growth of Massive Open Online

Courses (MOOCs) produced what Stanford University President John Hennessy called

"tsunami" in education. He also predicted that countries would become a global village due

to linkages via computers and the Internet, a prediction that occurred in 1982 when the

Internet had not yet existed.

There are many lessons and take-away from all the above-mentioned writers, first,

with technology being our prime philosophy, information becomes the most valuable asset.

That's why government leaders are struggling for their nations to win the giant technology

race. The problem is that this time around, nobody fully understands the implications of our

belief system. This lack of understanding quickly becomes a threat to political leaders.

People are frustrated, they feel ignored, and they realize that the representatives they

elected do not deal with the most important issues. And yet, we know as little about

technology as they do. The second lesson is, we believe we have a lot of knowledge, but

we're not, and it's risky. I rarely talk to my family about politics, but when we do, we like to

joke about the "genius" of some policymakers. However, all of us have this problem. That's

why we're talking so much about fallacies to help us think a little bit better. One of them is

what Harari calls ‘the knowledge illusion’. We believe that we know a lot more than our

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ancestors or other people when, in fact, we know less in many respects. For example, we all

depend on many specialists or experts to live our daily lives. We can't hunt for our own food

such as chicken or fish, build our own shelter, saw our own clothes or repair our own car.

We believe we're wise because we have access to all the knowledge of the world that

doesn't mean it's already in our brains. Rather, we should be humble, grateful, and do our

utmost to continuous learning. The third lesson I've found is that the school needs to start

teaching us how to think and not what to think. Sadly, when I was in college, some of our

professors just taught us to know “what to do” and not “how to think”. There is no question

that a simple understanding of history, biology, mathematics, and other subjects is

necessary. But apart from that, it's more vital that we know how to handle the new

environment of knowledge, how to sort out the significant, and how to decide what's wrong

than just learning more facts. The question of traffic congestion, coronavirus, taal volcano

eruption, and other things, why do our politicians seem not to know how to think and come

up with long-term solutions? They just did what they had to do without knowing what was

important and beneficial. The issue of the Capas Municipal Council, Tarlac, which

unanimously voted against the decision to use New Clark City as a quarantine area for

dozens of Filipinos to be repatriated from the epicenter of the novel coronavirus. Why is

there an opposition to that? It's mainly because we're just taught only on 'what to do' and not

of 'how to think'. Why then did the other countries respond immediately and rescue their

citizens? Was it difficult to do just the same?

The future is also uncertain. But we believe that our world, as a society and as a

nation, has true strength and progress. All of the authors mentioned above are sometimes

right and sometimes wrong about the future, and so are we. Even the clock stopped, as they

say, is right twice a day. Most of the author's fundamental approach to life is through

technological progress to access new ideas and a better future. The authors’ optimistic

outlook shows only silver linings, but the clear reality of thousands of years of history tells us

that people and our leaders don't always do the right thing. Things go wrong sometimes. Our

government officials in the Philippines need to check and review our history and experiences

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because it will remind them that we have to hear and even be guided by the voices of their

citizens. The writers/authors make their predictions or share their thoughts about the future,

these predictions should serve as a reference and an opportunity to develop and improve

public service delivery and not as a warning only, given that the future is full of uncertainty.

Bad predictions should be used as a guide to planning for the formulation of a preventive

measure to prepare the Philippines for adverse possibilities of a situation and to take action

if it can not be prevented but at least to reduce its impact.

There are a lot of predictions that are already happening now, online shopping is now

better than retail shopping in most respects: it's simpler, quicker, in most cases faster than

you don't have to go to the supermarket. Retail stores are more often converted into sales

sites, where consumers can have an enjoyable demo experience that will be ordered online

and shipped later.

Major terrorist attacks have driven the US government to do its best to combat

terrorism. The only means they can do this is to collect and store an enormous level of

intelligence. The era of privacy has come to an end as described in Orwell's novel. The CIA

has full access to all of its electronic and financial activities. Governments around the world

have cooperated to eradicate threats and have worked to create a centralized database of

searchable video camera footage.

With all these changes, we can easily say that the above authors have in effect

predicted something of what is going to happen in the future, and as a reader, we can take

this as a guide to start and participate in the government to have a better future not only for

ourselves and our country but also for all the other countries to achieve the sustainable

development goals accepted and agreed by all the countries that participated and took part

of it.

We may also foresee the future on the basis of our behavioral, mindset and cognitive

responses. I see that, in the future, lets say 7 years from now, human will become morbidly

obese, as work for home may eventually happen. They sit at their chair at home, do their

job in front of the computer, and even meals, groceries, cleaning, washing of clothes will be

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served at home not by humans, but by robots or machines. People will no longer cook their

meals, food is prepared with preservatives, heated with a microwave oven. By 2025,

Government meetings are held using Holographic Telepresence, which can minimize travel

overheads by linking the Public Administration or elected officials from distant areas through

a broadband network. AI technology will empower human actions and decisions, and will

allow the AI technology as their consultant to evaluate and recommend solutions before

people decide. People will no longer think for themselves, but they will rely heavily on AI

assistance, such as Siri and Alexa. Social interaction is minimal, as most people do their

work, including the schooling of their children at home. Do we really want this to happen?

Machines and technology reign over human race? Well, there's still a future out there, so we

should think about how to do it for the future, and not what to do about it? When we say how,

we think, analyze, and deduce, and when we say what to do, we rely on someone or

something to make a decision, and we just follow it.

References

Canton, James. 2006. The Extreme Future: The Top Trends That Will Reshape the World in the Next
20 Years.

Harari, Yuval Noah. 21 Lessons for the 21st Century. London.

Gordon, Gordon. Future Savvy: Identifying Trends to Make Better Decisions, Manage Uncertainty,
and Profit from Change (AMACOM, 2008)

Naisbitt, John. Megatrends: The New Directions Transforming Our Lives

Orwell, George. 1984

Toffler, Alvin. "Future Shock." Random House. 1970. (Aug. 20, 2012) http://books.google.com/books?
id=PJHi444dlRcC&pg=PA11&lpg=PA11&dq=future+shock&source=bl&ots=0AOU_ndxQr&sig=
u6BN7JDPbJgLnRPuGGF0A-
cQuz0&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ZJUyUJPfO4X30gGZ5oHAAQ&ved=0CDgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=
future%20shock&f=false

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